Student designs ‘roll and return’ transit pack

Royal College of Art graduate Will Penfold used an “advanced form of polypropylene” common to the automotive industry, which is then corrugated using a heat press.

It is then formed into a box that can be collapsed and rolled up to save space for returned to a depot, for example.

Penfold told Packaging News that transport packs were the likely starting point as it was easier to control the packs’ movement. But in the longer run he envisages supermarket customers using Roll and Return, perhaps using a points scheme to ensure the packs are returned.

“Transit packaging has to be the obvious starting point, because without the consumer it is easier to have a closed loop,” he said.

The boxes could be used on existing box machinery, with some small modifications and can be reused between 10 and 20 times, said Penfold, after which they can be recycled.

Penfold suggested that a 1m by 1.5m box would be possible and is now looking to carry out more prototyping of boxes and develop Roll and Return commercially.

He completed his master’s course at the RCA in June with a dissertation examining how design can influence product wastage.

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